Should your business have a blog?

Richard Penny, 28 November 2012

 

I get asked a lot, particularly by small and medium business owners, whether they need a blog.  

For many busy Kiwi businesspeople, a blog seems a self-indulgent drain on resources and I can certainly understand that point of view, however I firmly believe that to not have one is to ignore a fundamental pillar of a modern B2B marketing programme and to miss a big opportunity to differentiate your business. 

I came across an article recently on MarketingProfs by Chris Lee which I think explains succinctly the fundamental reasons for putting the effort into creating and maintaining a blog. 

It’s not rocket science and there is nothing earth shattering in the article, however if you are still wondering whether blogging is worth your effort then its well worth a quick read. 

In a nutshell here are the main reasons that if you are not already blogging, you should be… 

1.  Attract new attention to your business: By blogging on topics that are related to, but not specifically about your offering creates the opportunity for you to be found by prospects that may not have been directly considering you, your product or even your category before.

2. Demonstrate your expertise: A blog is a great way to show your target audience that you really know what you are talking about. Commenting on industry trends and demonstrating insight into your customer’s needs and challenges will help you build credibility. Going a step further and giving people a peek into your business and what makes you tick will help them connect with you and generally create a level of engagement that is very hard to achieve in a more traditional sales environment.

3. Build trust: People are naturally sceptical and often require a lot of convincing of your ability to deliver what they need. Your salesperson telling people what to think about you isn’t half as powerful as demonstrating your abilities in a non-sales environment. Even better if you can get some of your happy customers commenting on your blog.

4. Create a central point for your social media: More and more businesses are using Twitter and LinkedIn to push messages into the market but this is only doing part of the job. Having a blog gives you something to talk about (e.g. tweeting about your latest post)  and also somewhere you can bring engaged eyeballs back to, to further the relationship and move prospects through your sales process.  Blogs are also a foundation point for any newsletter programme.

5. Boost your SEO rankings: As well as bringing new eyeballs to your website, creating regular, fresh content will give your search engine performance a huge boost. It is also a great way to build links to your site, one of the primary factors in determining your search ranking. That’s a whole topic in itself so more on that in another post perhaps… 

Can’t I just use Facebook?

Sure, some businesses are skipping a blog in favour of a Facebook page, but you will find that the vast majority of these are selling consumer products and services. For most of my clients who are in a business-to-business relationship with their customers, in my opinion Facebook is still very much unproven and is no substitute for a good quality blog. 

Yes a blog is a big commitment (my own isn’t nearly as fresh as I’d like it to be) but if you do commit to it, they are a great way to bring new, qualified, engaged traffic to your website. From there a tool like Click Dimensions can help you understand that traffic and turn it into leads, and ultimately, into sales. 

Getting a blog up and running nowadays is actually a very simple and cost effective process, with free sites like Tumblr and Wordpress basically guiding you through the process. Even better, work with the people who help you with your website to get it set up properly on your domain so that you get the full benefit of the SEO goodness that your blog will generate.

If you are really stretched for time you can even outsource the creation of the content itself. There many sites out there that can put you in touch with freelance writers with expertise in pretty much any subject – even yours. There really is no excuse to not be taking advantage of the marketing potential offered by the humble blog. 

So what are you waiting for?